I just got a mini rush of sales. I assume these were all bought by the same person. So today, I was curious who bought them.

Actually, I think Shapeways has just done some good promotion -- I'm told there's a 25% off on White Strong Flex sale, and judging by my inbox it seems to be working.

My opinion: I'd like if buyers have the option to reveal their names, but I wouldn't ask for it to be mandatory.

I like knowing my buyers too, especially the big ones. But it's also true that a lot of people are very security-conscious online, and they may not want to gratify your curiosity or get messages from you.

To provide instructions or documentation is a valid reason, but I think it would be better served by having a way to add one or more links on a model's page.

Quote:

-product safety ... it's sad to say that in some cases people buy things to copy ideas. Being able to monitor your buyers will help to see if they are exhibiting a trend in this direction.

It would be nice if this worked, but I tend to think if someone wants to steal your idea, they'll steal it anyway. People can't buy from my site anonymously, and it doesn't stop them.

I don't know, I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't be mandatory to know their names. How many other sites like this don't give you that info? Ponoko, etsy, dawanda, artfire, 1000markets.. all of them do. If someone REALLY wants to mask their identity they'll use a fake name or something.

Unknown buyers, unfaced world. Somewhere in the deal in shapeways'shop, buyer's email is wrote. So, this address can be inclued in an auto-generate mail for the seller. I would like to develop 3d prints with Shapeways service for young contemporary french artist. Due to law, they have to produce invoice and to have the address of the buyers, because it's limited.
I hope you could do something for us.
Thanks.
Best regards.

Shapeways is somewhat unique in their model of being a broker between buyers and sellers in that the seller doesn't physically create the product and doesn't ship the product to the buyer.
In addition the Shapeways privacy policy right now probably states that they won't give out a buyer's information to anyone. That would include sellers as currently written.

I can see room for the policy to change and allow a buyer to allow the seller to know who they are, but freely allowing a seller to know who is buying their products without notifying or requesting permission from the buyer has privacy violation written all over it.

My opinion: I'd like if buyers have the option to reveal their names, but I wouldn't ask for it to be mandatory.

I like knowing my buyers too, especially the big ones. But it's also true that a lot of people are very security-conscious online, and they may not want to gratify your curiosity or get messages from you.

To provide instructions or documentation is a valid reason, but I think it would be better served by having a way to add one or more links on a model's page.

I also feel the curiosity of wanting to know who bought my product. But I really agree with Bathsheba; make it optional at best, but not mandatory. Privacy is important and you would not want to loose out customers for that (because you might).

Could someone put out a plausible scenario whereby a buyer's privacy would be threatened by the creator/seller of the product? I am assuming that if the buyer did not want to be contacted, then they would not make their contact information available on Shapeways.

I'm not challenging the idea that privacy is an issue. I just want to understand the issue, because right now, I don't see it.

Is there any way to know the order number, without knowing the buyers name ? i think currently only order date is mentioned.
This way a buyer can provide that order number offline and be tied to an actual purchase for future discounts
( using co-creator for example )

I suppose some sort of demographics would be nice information. Maybe the option to add a survey to a product (or shop) so when they order, it asks if you would like to fill out a survey to send to the shop owners of your order?

I'm with Shapeways on this one... sort of. There is another business model like theirs where the customer is not revealed to the "artist" and that is the likes of Zazzle where items such as posters, t-shirts, mugs, etc are printed with a users design and shipped by Zazzle. The buyer is not revealed to the seller.

However, should I ever get to the point whre I'm making a lot of sales I would like to have access to sales information; i.e. countries where product is shipped, sales volume by item, profit per item, etc., etc.

I can see both sides .. but. I sold two items .. one of each on May 26. On June 13 those same two items I sell 45 ea. Now .. I had posted when I uploaded the items that any buyer should do so at his/her own risk as I had not had them printed off yet. EVIDENTLY .. whoever bought them was happy with them since they placed that order for 45 ea. I don't have a burning desire to know who the person is (although I would like to) .. but I WOULD like some feedback. Seems to me that Shapeways as the "middle man" could at least re-direct a question from me to whoever the buyer is without in any way reveling who that person is to me .. or something as simple as "the person who created the object you bought would like you to provide feedback to the shop page" .. I mean .. come on.

Usually I do know who my buyers are because a large percentage of my sales are to 2 or 3 different people and if they don't talk to e before the sale they publish pictures on there sites after the fact.

However there are 2 things I would like to know that I don't always know.

1) For those that are not repeat customers how did they find me. Google Analytics gives me the view history but not if something translates to a sale or not.

2) I would like it if shapeways would include a card with a reference url asking them to review each of the items they got. The url could know what was in the order and give the customer 1 page where they could rate, and write reviews on everything they got. Would probably encourage a lot more to review stuff. Maybe even offer a raffle. each post sale review gets you in a draw for a monthly $15 gift card. it is surprising how much extra trafic a small potential gift like that can bring in.

Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/mctrivia or my blog at http://4ddice.blogspot.com/

I'm with Robert. I too just made my first sale (hooray) and it would be great to be able to get some feedback from customers. As it is, there is no mechanism to iterate and improve designs based on customer input. Hopefully Shapeways can figure out a way to facilitate this.

I double checked with Shapeways:
"At the moment we are not looking to change the interaction between the seller and the buyer to send on the buyers information to the seller.
Shapeways differs from Etsy, Ebay and Amazon in that we are fabricating and providing the product to the buyer. Shapeways handles quality control and complaints.
In this way we can offer consistent customer service and user experience across multiple shops."

I stated as reasons why I would like to have customer information (as also mentioned in this thread already):

The first thing I would want to know about my customers is demographics.
Where are my customers coming from (country at least)?
I'm targetting certain markets, but in Google Analytics I see many hits from different markets...
but I can't map this back to the sales.

Also you would like to know if I have repeat customers or new ones mostly; this to steer the marketing efforts.

It might also be interesting to know, how they found the shop (but Shapeways doesn't know that currently either...so would have to ask I guess); again, to steer the marketing efforts.

Above info can be made available in an anonymous report form also, thus without revealing the actual (name) details of the customers (to e.g. protect privacy or maintain the "consistent user experience").

If I had many customers, you might want to consider a newsletter or so.
Or invite them for feedback / a poll related to new product development (new model examples).
I'm aware however above can be done via e.g. a Facebook group/page also.
But that requires additional action from the buyer again of course.

FWIW, I'm fine with how things are. I don't feel any entitlement to customer data from Shapeways.

For many customers a promise of confidentiality, that their data will not be shared with anyone, is a selling point. Maybe Shapeways likes to be able to say that; anyway it's their decision to make. This is their site, these are their customers. I can tell that because when packages don't arrive or there are issues with payment, it's Shapeways' problem and not mine. If I want a deeper relationship with customers, I can develop that on my own commerce site.

I don't feel entitled to any information, but I would still love to get any.

I had an order today, and I have no way of knowing if it was from someone I had promoted to using one of many different ways I am promoting my items, a friend, or someone that just happened upon the item while looking through shapeways.

Knowing what state they are from, a last name, or even initials, and what site they came from to order the item would not be enough to identify the person or contact them, but could help me in determining if I should continue the effort and money spent promoting my items here.

Lincoln
www.craftosterone.com

For special discounts and news add us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Craftosterone
www.Craftosterone.com
http://www.shapeways.com/shops/novakingway